Maple Glazed Butternut Squash with Bacon Recipe

This Maple Glazed Butternut Squash with Bacon recipe makes an easy side dish fot the autumn months. It’s also works great as a delicious breakfast with a fried egg on top.

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True story: I’ve been completely intimidated by the idea of cooking butternut squash. Until this recipe today, the only time I’ve cooked butternut squash was in 2010 (5 years ago at the date of this post). I’ve avoided it as much as possible and even if I saw a recipe that looks amazing, I would convince myself that it was too much trouble.

The silly thing is that I’m a complete opposite when it comes to spaghetti squash. We eat tons of spaghetti squash in the fall and winter. I’m fearless with it, I tell ya.

Well, I decided that I wanted that same thing with butternut squash. It was time. I love taking advantage of seasonal produce with lower prices and I don’t want to skip out on this one over some silly fear. A fear that it will be hard to cut open or a fear that it will be hard to cook with.

I wanted to create a recipe with butternut squash that would be super simple. I wanted something that I would be likely to make several times this fall. I pulled out The Flavor Bible to see what flavors went well with butternut squash and got busy creating. The final result was so good, so simple, and exactly the kind of recipe I love to share with you all: Maple Glazed Butternut Squash with Bacon recipe. An easy side dish recipe with only 5 ingredients.

Here’s how to make my Maple Glazed Butternut Squash with Bacon Recipe:

You’ll want a large butternut squash, about 3 1/2 -4 lbs is good. With a large, sharp knife, carefully cut off about 1 inch of the top and bottom. You can throw those pieces away.

With a spoon, scrape out the seeds and stringy stuff and throw those out too. {well, you could roast the seeds, like how you roast pumpkin seeds}

With a sharp vegetable peeler, peel off the skin of the butternut squash.

Now, cube your butternut squash into about 1″ pieces.

Place the butternut squash onto a greased baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Toss the cubes, while on the sheet, to ensure that all the pieces have been lightly coated with the oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook in your oven and about 1/2 ways through the cooking time, turn and flip the pieces with a spatula.

While the butternut squash is roasting in the oven, you’ll cook your cut bacon pieces on your stovetop. Once it’s done cooking, remove it from the pan with a metal slotted spoon. Reserve about 1 1/2 teaspoons of bacon grease.

With the cooked butternut squash still on the baking sheet, drizzle it with maple syrup. Gently turn the pieces to coat all of them with the syrup. Next, combine the squash with the bacon and the reserved bacon grease. Season with salt and pepper and transfer your completed Maple Glazed Butternut Squash with Bacon to a serving plate or bowl. It’s ready to serve!

This Maple Glazed Butternut Squash with Bacon recipe makes a delicious easy side dish during the autumn months. We also found that this is amazing for breakfast with a fried egg on top.

Ingredients

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

With a large, sharp knife, carefully cut off about 1 inch of the top and bottom; discard pieces. With a spoon, scrape out the seeds and stringy membranes; discard. With a sharp vegetable peeler, peel off the skin of the butternut squash. Cube the butternut squash into about 1″ pieces.

Place the butternut squash onto a large baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Toss the cubes, while on the sheet, to ensure that all the pieces have been lightly coated with the oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook in in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until tender. Turn and flip the pieces over with a metal spatula about 1/2 way through the cooking time.

While the butternut squash is roasting in the oven, cut the raw bacon into approximately 1/2″ pieces. Cook in a frying pan, according to package instructions, until fully cooked and crispy. Once the bacon is done cooking, remove the pieces from the pan with a metal slotted spoon to a bowl. Separately reserve about 1 1/2 teaspoons of bacon grease.

With the cooked butternut squash still on the baking sheet, drizzle it with maple syrup. Gently flip the pieces to coat them with the syrup. Combine the squash with the bacon and the reserved bacon grease. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.

Notes

This Maple Glazed Butternut Squash with Bacon recipe is also great for breakfast with a fried egg on top.

Nutrition

Serving Size:6

Want even more winter squash recipes?

My Maple Glazed Butternut Squash with Bacon Recipe is my contribution to the October #12Bloggers Event that happens on the 12th of every month. It includes myself and 11 blogging friends and we all create recipes around a common theme — all of the recipes have 12 ingredients or less too. This months theme is Sweet & Savory Squash Recipes — here are the links to all of the other great winter squash recipes:

[…] in 2015, I decided it was time to make better use of this winter squash. That’s when I made Maple Glazed Butternut Squash with Bacon and oh my. This changed everything for me. Not only was it one of the best vegetable side dishes […]